Ben Creisler
bcreisler@gmail.com
A new paper:
Lida Xing, Nasrollah Abbassi, Martin G. Lockley, Hendrik Klein,
Songhai Jia, Richard T. McCrea & W. Scott Persons IV (2016)
The first record of Anomoepus tracks from the Middle Jurassic of Henan
Province, Central China.
Historical Biology (advance online publication)
DOI:10.1080/08912963.2016.1149480
http: // www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08912963.2016.1149480
Small, gracile mostly tridactyl tracks from the Middle Jurassic of
Henan Province represent the first example of the ichnogenus Anomoepus
from this region. They represent a growing number of reports (at least
eight) of this ichnogenus from the Jurassic of China. In conjunction
with Changpeipus and Eubrontes, they appear characteristic of known
global footprint biochrons. Anomoepus indicates the presence of
ornithischian dinosaurs that are often scarce or unknown from skeletal
remains in coeval deposits. When first discovered, these tracks were
informally referred to as bird tracks. This interpretation reflects
convergence between small Jurassic Anomoepus and avian theropod tracks
that are hitherto known only from the Cretaceous and the Cenozoic.
However, most Anomoepus are larger and more robust than any hitherto
known Mesozoic avian tracks.
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